The codfishing schooner JOSEPH RUSS struck the rocks off Chirikof Island on April 21 and was totally demolished, First Mate J. Jorgensen being drowned. Capt. Charles Foss and the remaining 29 men of the crew reached the island where they were in danger of death through cold and starvation. Second Mate A.E. Reeve and five volunteers put out in two small boats to seek assistance, battling for 11 days through constant storms to reach Chignik, arriving two hours before the steamer DORA. Capt. C.B. McMullen of the DORA ordered his vessel to the scene of the RUSS wreck which was reached the following evening. Although the "midnight sun" allowed rescue work to proceed throughout the night, it required 12 hours to remove the shipwrecked fishermen safely to the DORA. [Notes from Gordon Newell, ed., The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co., 1966)]